Trinity Grammar School (New South Wales)

Trinity Grammar School is a multi-campus independent Anglican single-sex early learning, primary and secondary day school for boys, in Inner West Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The main campus in provides a comprehensive education to students from Year 7 to Year 12; the campus in Strathfield provides a comprehensive education to early learning and primary school students, from Kindergarten to Year 6; and outdoor education facilities are located at Woollamia on the NSW South Coast. The school previously enrolled boarders until the end of 2019.

Founded in 1913 by George Chambers at Dulwich Hill, the school has a non-selective enrolment policy and currently caters for approximately 2,000 (during 2007)students. the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA), The Independent Primary School Heads of Australia (IPSHA), which was formerly known as the Junior School Heads Association of Australia (JSHAA), the Independent Primary School Heads of Australia, the Australian Boarding Schools' Association (ABSA), and is a founding member of the Combined Associated Schools (CAS).

Governance

The School is governed by a Council (appointed by ordinance of the Diocese of Sydney), with the Archbishop of Sydney, Kanishka Raffel as the President. The council currently has seventeen members, with six lay members being elected by the Synod of the Diocese of Sydney, six clergy being elected by the Synod, and three being nominated by the Old Trinitarians Union (OTU).

Trinity Grammar's "sister school" is Meriden School at Strathfield, an independent, Anglican, day school for girls. In 2018, Trinity Grammar School began integrating Meriden's cadet unit into Trinity's cadet unit.

History

thumb|240px|The first school photograph, 1913

George Chambers , subsequently Bishop of Central Tanganyika, founded the School in 1913 at Dulwich Hill, of which parish - the Parish of Holy Trinity - he was then Rector. At its foundation, Trinity was a small parochial school with 29 boys enrolled. This number had reached 57 at the end of that year.

Having been appointed Warden of the School, Chambers' immediate task was to find a Headmaster. Thus, K.T. Henderson was appointed as the first Headmaster of Trinity Grammar in February 1913. In November 1915, the School formulated its motto, Detur Gloria Soli Deo, which may be translated from Latin to "Let Glory be Given to God Alone". The School colours were chosen to reflect the liturgical season of Trinity, namely green.

In 1926 it was offered to Trinity Grammar School and bought by them, but Strathfield Grammar School and Trinity Grammar School continued to function as separate establishments until 1932, when the two became Trinity Grammar School. The site for this development was the land on which the St Thomas Beckett Primary School had been previously located. The multi-phase development began with initial construction work focused on infrastructure improvements, including a redesigned front entrance. Subsequent phases now in progress include a new four-storey building intended to provide additional general-purpose teaching spaces. This building will sit in the centre of the school campus, between Number 2 Oval and the quadrangle, and between the Sports Centre and the James Wilson Hogg Assembly Hall. It is anticipated that the project will be completed for the start of the school year in 2027.

Facilities

The Trinity Grammar School senior campus is located in Summer Hill, and features a mix of old and new buildings and facilities.

Some current facilities of the school include:

A quadrangle forms the centrepiece of the grounds, with a chapel;
The Founders Building, containing a drama theatre, film and sound editing studios, interview rooms, staff common room, English department and the Arthur Holt Library;
A gymnasium consisting of a fitness and weights room, three basketball courts and squash court, 2 25-metre swimming pool and a brand new 50-metre swimming pool.;
The School of Science, housing laboratories and classrooms, also has a greenhouse on the roof;
The Design Centre, adjacent to the School of Science, housing art classrooms, design and technology rooms and computer labs;
The Delmar Gallery, the School's official gallery, suitably situated next to the Design Centre;
The Roderick West School of Music Building, containing a choir room, orchestra room, band room, music-composing computer labs, a recording studio and 30 music studios;
The New School, housing the Mathematics department, Languages Department, Geography department and Economics department;
The James Wilson Hogg Assembly Hall, capable of seating the entire Senior School and used for formal ceremonies and assemblies;
Three sporting ovals (one containing a 300m track and 2 outdoor basketball courts, FIFA soccer field ) and an off-campus tennis centre;
Two underground carparks
Junior School
Centenary Centre consisting of an Aquatic Centre (50m Swimming Pool and Official Water Polo configured pool), Basketball Courts, and room used for examinations and meetings.
Field Studies Centre, off campus facility for outdoor education located on the NSW South Coast.
The Renewal Project (The upgrade of existing facilities including the New Building, Assembly Hall, accessibility upgrades to carpark, landscaping, Founders Building, School of Music and a new multipurpose pavilion)

School song and prayer

thumb|140px|Collectable Cigarette card featuring the Trinity colours and crest,

The school song is Detur Gloria Soli Deo, and is sung to the tune "Stuttgart" No. 200 in the Australian Hymn Book

Detur Gloria Soli deo,

Let the prayer triumphant ring;

Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

Trinity of thee we sing.

Trinitarians give the glory,

In a song of praise and joy;

For our School and her great story,

Glory give to God alone.

Students past and those now present,

Those the future years shall bring,

Detur Gloria Soli Deo,

This our own great anthem sing.

</poem></blockquote>

School Prayer

Heavenly Father, we ask your blessing

Upon all those who work in and for this School.

Grant us faith to grow spiritually, strength

To grow bodily and wisdom to grow intellectually,

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

</poem></blockquote>

House system

Students at the Summer Hill campus are divided into sixteen houses, named after significant facets of the school's history, the four original houses were Archer, Henderson, Hilliard and School. The 16 houses in Trinity Grammar School are Archer, Dulwich, Founders, Henderson, Hilliard, Holwood, Kerrigan, Latham, Murphy, School, Stephenson, Taubman, Weeks, Wilson Hogg, Wynn Jones and Young house. School House was reserved for boarders, although leading up to the closure of the boarding program in 2019 which was developed by the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO) to provide Primary school students with a platform from which they can develop their education in preparation for the International Baccalaureate. This provides a separate program for learning, but this is the framework for the teaching of Maths, English, Computer Studies, Physical Education, Visual Arts and Music. Boys in the HSC and the IB, while being able to interact with each other through the House/Pastoral and Sport/Curriculum systems, are taught separately, due to the differing nature of the two curricula.

Despite its relative success, however, the IB Middle Years Program (MYP) has not been introduced into the Middle School. Both the PYP and the MYP are specifically designed for an introduction into the IB, and, due to the popularity of the IB among students, there is a chance that the MYP will be brought into the Middle School in years to come, although the School has neither confirmed nor denied this.

Sport

Trinity Grammar School is a member of the Combined Associated Schools (CAS), and through this association competes with other members of the CAS as well as Independent Schools Association and GPS member schools. Sporting activities offered include Australian rules football, basketball, chess, cricket, cross country, diving, fencing, football (soccer), golf, lawn bowls, rugby, snow sports, squash, swimming, table tennis, tennis, touch football, track and field (athletics), volleyball, and water polo.

Controversies

In 1971 a Trinity student sued the school and one of its masters, claiming that he had been caned excessively. Colin Morris, 15, said that his buttocks were sore for three days, and bruised for three weeks, after receiving six strokes of the cane. The judge threw the case out, saying that the punishment had been reasonable, and added, "The salutary effect of the infliction of pain on a schoolboy, experience might show, justifies the reasonable use of this form of chastisement on healthy teenage boys."

Between 1984 and 1988, a senior school Mathematics teacher, Mr R. Doyle, was accused of sexually abusing two students who had been undertaking private tutoring with him on school grounds. Mr Doyle eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced in 1997, long after his dismissal from the school.

In 2000, a group of Year 10 boarding students were charged with sexually assaulting two students more than 75 times, including with a collection of wooden dildos made in a woodwork class, one of which was called the "Anaconda". Witnesses testified that the assaults often took place during lunch hour, and they "often heard screaming from the dormitory". It was alleged that the school had a culture of bullying A film loosely based on the incident, Boys Grammar, was produced in 2005. Academics now quote this case, and the school's attempts to minimise public awareness and perceived damage to it, in studies in this area.

Trinity's plan to bulldoze twelve of the seventeen houses it owns bordering the school grounds, in order to build a swimming pool, multi-purpose hall, classroom block and underground carpark, was approved by the NSW Land and Environment Court in November 2007. The single Ashfield Councillor who supported the application was an alumnus of the school, and described his fellow Councillors as "envious" and "a pathetic bunch of people".

In January 2016, the school was brought to prominence as a result of allegations of "sexualised behaviour" that occurred at the conclusion of 2015, between Year 1 students of the school. The allegations involved sexual acts being performed by students, whilst unsupervised during school hours, in the school toilets and playground. The Department of Family and Community Services was brought in to investigate the matter after the school was contacted by a concerned parent of one of the alleged victims.

In January 2017, former teacher Neil Futcher was sentenced to 18 years and 4 months' jail, with a non-parole period of 11 years, for 22 child sex offences committed against six students between 1974 and 1981.

In August 2020, police arrested English teacher Alexander Simpson in front of students and charged him with sending indecent material to a person under 16 and soliciting child abuse material. Detectives from the NSW Police child abuse unit had posed as a 13-year-old girl online, and alleged that he sent explicit images and messages to the undercover police whilst at work. He was later sentenced to 24 months in prison, but released under a recognisance order as he was the sole carer for his wife, who lived with a disability.

Alumni

right|thumb|130px|Old Trinitarians' Union Logo

Alumni of Trinity Grammar School are known as Old Trinitarians and automatically gain membership members of the school's Alumni Association, the Old Trinitarians Union. Through the Old Trinitarians Union, Old Boys regularly compete against current students in various sports such as cricket, volleyball and basketball, with the winner of the overall competition given the Jubilee Cup on Speech Day, with the President of the OTU collecting it on behalf of the old boys and the School Captain collecting it on behalf of the School.

References

External links

thumb|Trinity Grammar School Bus seen at Blaxland Dr before Old Illawarra Rd in [[Illawong]]

Trinity Grammar School website